5 years of Community Skratch, 21st – 24th of April, 2011, Galway.

Community Skratch Games 2011

Opening night, Thursday 21st April, 8.00pm, G126 gallery.

Send In The Hounds 12″ launch with

Deviant & Naive Ted (Send In The Hounds showcase)

Eoin Smith (turntable improvisations, Dublin)

Cut Man Doo and Damien Chmielix (tape and vinyl experiments, Poland)

Improvised performance from the Community Skratch Players.

Artwork, design and photography from Community Skratch affiliated artists Alis Klaar, Niall o Brien, JP Hartnett and Dan MacEoin.

Good Friday, 22nd April, 8.00pm, G126 gallery

Special screening of “Night At The Kintting Factory”, seminal performances from the D-Styles sextext and Ned Hoddings. Truly unmissable for those that haven’t seen this important moment in the evolution of skratch music,

Community Skratch Open Freestyle Battle Royale and DJ showcases, Saturday 23rd April, 3pm, Bierhaus.

Performances from….

DJ Blood1 (UK/Swe)

Deceptakut (UK)

Grandeurs Of Delusion (UK)

Fidel Cutstro (UK)

Jimmy Penguin

Mikey Fingers

Tweek

Gondek

Ozz G

Cut Man Doo (Pol)

Damien Chmielix (Pol)

Moschops

Djackulate

DJ & Producer showcases, Sunday 24th April, 3pm, Bierhaus.

Performances from

Melodica Deathship

T-Woc

MyNameIsJohn

Mustapha Monde

Rumbus Merrylegs

Rubble Digits

Dal Kas

Teknique

Deviant & Naive Ted

Chiwawa Studios

Noid The Droid

Laminator

facebook event page

I’ve said enough already. Its been a long time coming but its finally online and ready to consume. 37 mins long in total – so make sure you’re comfortable before you start but it’ll be worth every minute of it.

There will be short clips from this film going online in the next week or so along with a downloadable ipod/iphone compatible version so you can watch it on your way to the Community Skratch Games at Easter. Enjoy.

During August we filmed a lot of scratching and drinking and messing around. Loads in fact. As this year’s video is taking a bit longer than previous installments, here’s a short trailer to wet your appetite a bit. By the way the music on this trailer is called “No shame” and is available on Jimmy Penguin’s excellent “Scrataar” EP which you can download for free here…   http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/62809

Well, thats it – its all over for another year. The community Skratch Tour 2010 ended in Brighton this saturday, at what was one of the best events we’ve ever been to – the Community Skratch BBQ. Yet again the Gladstone garden was at capacity as everyone climbed onto the tables to catch a glimpse of the action.

Every year the atmosphere is incredible at this event having seen brilliant shows from Clockwork, Foly, Blak Randy , Jimmy Penguin and Deviant, Unemployed Superheroes, Grandeurs Of Delusion’s sizzling new line-up and the amazing Oslo Flow alongside Keita.

Unfortunately after a heavy night in Bristol, we lost Mikey Fingers and Tweek along the way. Although we understand that they both enjoyed themselves.

This year’s BBQ was hosted by Enlish who was on fire all afternoon despite not having been to bed for 2 days. One of the great things about these events is that people come from all over to get involved. As well as performers from Ireland, Canada, Norway, UK and even Japan(!), people travelled for hours to be a part of the crowd.

We spoke to people from Ireland (Gem), Leeds (Mike-L), Guernsey, Norfolk, Germany, and London at the BBQ – and everyone left knowing the journey had been worth their while.

The highlight of the BBQ show for me was Blam and Plato. With a venue full of people sporting Oslo Flow shirts, their infectious natural funk was the perfect soundtrack as the sun went down. What they do is so unique and brilliant, everyone in the venue could feel they were witnessing something incredible.

The past month of shows has been amazing. We have all met some brilliant and achingly generous people from across the world. At times it was very hard work. A lot of travelling with very little sleep (to be fair that was our own fault) and a lot of intoxicants at times took its toll.

But the most incredible thing about these shows is that the standard of talent, musicianship and people make it all worth while. As Blam (@daggaless) said himself “There was some serious business going on in Brighton that day – something is changing” – and I can’t wait to be involved in whats coming next.

Keep checking the site for the forthcoming video..

So the Irish leg of the tour is completed. Great atmosphere at every show and amazing performances from Jimmy Penguin and Deviant, Mikey Fingers and Tweek, G.O.D and the Neil Bucannon. We have amassed over 60Gb of audio and video recordings which we’ll put together with the upcoming footage from Germany and the UK.

The proceedings opened up in Cork with Jimmy Penguin and Deviant showing why they are (in my opinion) the best in the world at what they do. An unbelievable scratch/folk set like nothing I’d heard before. To boot their solo scratches are amazing – there is nothing that these boys can’t do!

Mikey fingers and Tweek next with an MPC/ Loop Pedal/ Turntable show with brand new material alongside hypnotizing rendition of tracks from last years Tuphat Paddys EP (See the Downloads section).

G.O.D were up next  with their battering electro and some blistering new songs to boot.

The in-store in Dublin was a proper Community Skratch Vibe, with people from all walks of life pouring into CRU and sharing a beer. At one stage there was even a trumpet player turned up to play Happy Birthday ( and inexplicably ring of Fire) to Birthday Boy Moschops.

Nearly all of the scratch DJ’s in Ireland were out and later everyone met up for drinks in Dublin where we had a lock-in until the early hours. Great to see the likes of Tuki and Savwar there..

Another long journey and we were in Galway, the home of the Community Skratch Games, for a club show and a scratinee(!). Some of the best musicians from Galway got together to improvise together as part of the Galway Big Jam. Including Sebi C (pictured, right) , Vince Mack Mahon. Jimmy Hatetank (pictured, left) even got involved too.

We arrived to Cuba to a display of banging techno throughout which Noid the Droid read  his book quietly in the corner. This was not our usual crowd but they loved it. All of the sets were well received and we got the CSG atmosphere going in full swing. Finishing up with G.O.D on a loud system where the punishing electro rhythms came into their own.

Next stop is Berlin, watch this space…

Thanks to Sebi C, Jimmy P and Sarah, and Moschops for your hospitality. Much appreciated as always.

The remaining tour dates can be seen in the Calendar on the right so come down and get involved with the Community Skratch Movement.

After months of organising we are proud to announce the dates/ venues and line-ups for the Community Skratch Tour 2010!

This years event will take in Ireland, UK, and Germany as we step things up for the third year in a row. The tour includes new music performances from your favourite CSG artists such as Jimmy Penguin, Deviant, & G.O.D… but also featuring performances from the one and only LORN all the way from the U.S for the Community Skratch BBQ, UK…. and exclusive album performances from Oslo Flow (Blam and Plato).

This year there will be Community Skratch BBQ’s in Berlin on Saturday 21st August and the usual finale in Brighton on August 28th.

Posters for all events will be online shortly, so please spread the word. Lets make it another amazing year!